Soft robotics

Aug 18, 2017 @ 21:41 | Cutting your hand, tearing a muscle, or even breaking a bone – these are all injuries that heal over time. Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have also endowed robots with this self-healing property, as illustrated in their study “Self-healing soft pneumatic robots”, published in Science Robotics. Research into […]

By Benjamin Boettner | Jul 28, 2017 @ 13:39 | A soft wearable robotic suit promotes normal walking in stroke patients, opening new approaches to gait re-training and rehabilitation. Upright walking on two legs is a defining trait in humans, enabling them to move very efficiently throughout their environment. This can all change in the blink […]

Jul 25, 2017 @ 18:36 | Soft-bodied robots offer the possibility for social engagement, and novel tactile human-robot interactions that require careful consideration of the potential for misplaced emotional attachments and personally and socially destructive behavior by users. The ethical challenges related to human-robot interactions and how these should contribute to soft robotics design in […]

By Taylor Kubota | Jul 21, 2017 @ 08:41 | A newly developed vine-like growing robot can across long distances without moving its whole body. It could prove useful in search and rescue operations and medical applications. Imagine rescuers searching for people in the rubble of a collapsed building. Instead of digging through the debris by […]

By Lindsay Brownell | Jul 13, 2017 @ 18:17 | Hybrid silicone-fabric sensor detects fine motor movements by flexing with the body. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has created a highly sensitive soft capacitive sensor made of silicone and fabric that moves and flexes with the human body to unobtrusively and accurately detect […]

By Peter Reuell | Jun 13, 2017 @ 19:03 | Harvard scientists have created a type of semi-soft Robot capable of walking, using simple materials such as drinking straws and inflatable tubing. At the beginning of the decade, George Whitesides helped rewrite the rules of what a machine could be with the development of biologically inspired […]